A Few 
Straight Questions 
| About Your University 


By David Kinley 


Acting President, University of Illinois 


DO YOU KNOW 
THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS, 
WHAT IT IS, 
AND WHAT IT DOES? 


DO YOU KNOW 


That the physical plant of the Uni- 
versity of Illinois comprises sixty 
buildings, a farm of 990 acres, and 
235 acres of other campus land? 

That the student enrolment for the 
year will be near 10,000? 

That more than 1,000 degrees are 
conferred each year? 


DO YOU KNOW 


That the professional and clerical staff of 
the University numbers 1026; other em- 
ployees (janitors, grounds, farm, etc.) 266, 
making a total of 1292 people on the regular 
payroll of the University, besides a large 
number of students on part time employ- 
ment? 


That in the departments at Urbana- 
Champaign alone 4835 classes are held each 
week? 

That over 10,000 samples of soil have been 
collected from all over the State and are 
being tested and classified by the University? 


That the work of the University against 
the Hessian fly, the chinch bug, oat smut, 
flag smut, bitter rot, apple scab, and other 
pests, has saved millions of bushels of wheat, 
oats, corn, apples, and other crops? 


That ten separate and distinct methods 
are used to disseminate dairy information to 
the dairy farmers of Illinois? 


That the University developed a process 
of ice cream making which saves 30% of the 
sugar previously used? 


That authorities have said that the Uni- 
versity of Illinois has accomplished as much 
in the problems of coal production and coal 
conservation as any similar agency in the 
United States? 


That altho the University library con- 
tains 444,738 volumes, the student de- 
mand for the use of books greatly exceeds 
the supply? 


That your University is not adequately 
supported and must have a much larger 
income from the next legislature? 

That a larger income depends on your 
support? 


2 


THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 


What is the University of Illinois? Just 
what does it do? How big is it? How 
many buildings has it? How large is its 
faculty? 

These questions are frequently put, not 
only by people outside of the State, but by 
Illinoisans. It is not unusual for a stranger, 
when he first comes to the University, to 
exclaim in surprise, “I had no idea that 
Illinois was such an institution. I looked 
for a college with two or three buildings.” 

The truth is that only a very small per- 
centage of the people of Illinois know their 
University. It is not surprising, therefore, 
that they wonder at the amount of appro- 
priations asked for. 


A Public Service as well as a Teaching 
Institution 


Many people think of the University as a 
teaching institution only, a kind of enlarged 
high school. This is a mistake. A uni- 
versity, particularly a state university, is 
so much more than this that its teaching, 
in the ordinary sense of the term, repre- 
sents but a fraction of its service and ex- 
pense. A university is, in fact, a clearing 
house for knowledge both old and new, a 
forum for the discussion of present day 
problems, and an organization for the solu- 
tion of these problems and for the discussion 
of new truth. 

The University of Illinois performs four 
distinct functions, all expensive: 

1. Teaching the undergraduate body of 
students, not in set courses most easily 
taught, but in those which best meet their 
needs, requiring, of course, constant revi- 
sion. 

2. Training new faculty and executive 
staff: a university is not only a repository 
of knowledge and an agency of discovery, 
but a training place forits own workers. 
Teachers and research men cannot’ be 
bought like commodities. The only places 
where they are produced are these same 
universities; that is to say, they must be 
manufactured through the machinery of 
the institution. 


3 


3. Investigation and research for the 
sake of correcting old beliefs and for the dis- 
covery of new facts, with which not only to 
improve teaching but to advance the in- 
dustries and refine the arts of life. 


4. Attendance upon meetings, conven- 
tions, and conferences, educational, industri- 
al, economic, and social, both national, 
state, and local, at which leading men meet 
and discuss questions of progress, and at 
which the university’s advice and help are 
sought. 

It would be difficult to say which one of 
these four functions costs the most. The 
different colleges of the University differ in 
this respect. In the College of Agriculture, 
for example, the supposition is that one half 
the funds should go for research. Therefore 
much less than the total energy of the 
scientific staff is available for teaching 
students. 


The University as a Teachin¢g Institution 


As a teaching institution, the University 
comprises eight colleges, four schools, and a 
half dozen auxiliary bureaus and divisions, 
such as the extension service and the experi- 
ment stations, which are exclusively re- 
search in character. 

1. The College of Liberal Arts and 
Sciences, which teaches not only its own 
students, 2,547 in number, but also the 
students of all the other colleges’ and schools 
in the fundamental subjects. 

2. The College of Agriculture, with 1,215 
students. Among the noted departments of 
the College of Agriculture is that of Home 
Economics. 

3. The College of Engineering, with 1,768 
students. 

4. The College of Commerce, with 1,58 
students. : 

5. The College of Education, with 87 
students. This college has a new building, 
but the University does not have money to 
furnish equipment and staff for it. 

6. The College of Law, with 109 students. 


7. The School of Library Science, pre- 
paring now 34 librarians. 


4 


8. The School of Music, with 119 
students. Among the subjects taught are 


piano, voice, violin, organ, and public school 
music. | 


9. The Graduate School, with an en- 
rolment of 380, is the educational capstone 
of the University’s work. 


10. The Summer Session. The registra- 
tion last summer was 1,314. 


11. The College of Medicine, in Chicago, 
with 308 students. 


12. The College of Dentistry, in Chicago, 
with 196 students. 


18. The School of Pharmacy, in Chicago, 
with 209 students. 


14. Other great departments of instruc- 
tion are our Military and Physical Edu- 
cation divisions and our Health Service. 
At present the military work requires 103 
cadet officers and 6 U. S. Army officers, 
furnishing training for infantry, cavalry, 
artillery, signal corps, and engineering corps. 


Physical Education for both men and 
women is required. Our Health Service has 
- made a physical examination of every 
student in the University at Urbana. 


Administrative Divisions of the University 


Attention may be called particularly to 
the great administrative organization of our 
physical plant. In this division lies re- 
sponsibility for the maintenance of all the 
sixty buildings of the University, and our 
heat, light, and water systems. Some idea 
of the extent of the work of this department 
may be gained when one remembers that 
our buildings are furnished with heat, 
light, steam, and electricity for power, water, 
and telephone service through underground 
tunnels and conduits from central stations 
which are in operation night and day. 
There are now 6,568 feet of tunnels, 10,105 
feet of conduit for the distribution of steam, 
and 48,850 duct feet of conduit for the dis- 
tribution of electricity. Heat is supplied 
from six boilers of 500 h. p. capacity. The 
physical plant at Chicago, of course, is on 
a smaller scale, but equally well organized. 


5 


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The Matter of Salaries 


The question of better salaries must be 
considered from the standpoint of the Uni- 
versity rather than of the faculty. The 
great fact is that the best men cannot be held 
in university service at the present scale, 
nor can young men be attracted to this line 
of work by the salary prospects. 

The value of the University to the 
State and the best use of public funds, 
depend largely on the kind of men that can 
be induced to work in public service. The 
money would be spent whatever the scale 
of salaries, but how will it be spent? That 
is the whole question, and it turns upon the 
kind of men whom the University can hold, 
and whom it can induce to prepare ade- 
quately to take the places being so rapidly 
vacated. by death and other natural causes, 
in addition to the constant calls of the 
business world. 

On pages 6and 7 is a chart showing the 
relation between enrolment and expend- 
itures for the the past six years. 

Line “A’”’ shows the total income of the 
University from State appropriations, 
Federal appropriations, student fees, sales, 
and all other sources. The Federal assign- 
ment is not available for ordinary expendi- 
tures. The State appropriations include 
money for permanent improvements, as well 
as for operation and maintenance. The 
last appropriation included, in addition to 
the mill tax, $300,000 for a medical labora- 
tory in Chicago, and $25,000 for stables for 
artillery and cavalry horses in the Military 
Department. Leaving these out, it is evi- 
dent that the rate of increase of income is 
very much lower than the rate of increase 
of student teaching and other services of 
the University. 

The lines in Group ‘‘B”’ show the relation 
between operating expenditures and enrol- 


10 


ment. The lowest of the three lines, giving 
the relative value of total operating expendi- 
tures, makes allowance for the lower pur- 
chasing power of money. It is evident that 
the enrolment of students—to say nothing of 
the increase in other activities imposed upon 
the University—trises far more rapidly than 
the increase in available money for expenses. 

The group of lines marked “C”’ shows the 
course of salaries. The lower line makes 
allowance for the decrease in the purchasing 
power of money. 

On page 12 is a diagram showing the 
increase in the size of classes in certain 
departments. The overcrowding needs no 
comment. 

If there is anything about the University 
of Illinois that you want to know that this 
leaflet does not tell you, write a letter to 
the Acting President of the University. 


11 


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